Medical Miracles

This weekend my four year old daughter has been very sick with what appears to be a stomach virus. As I tried to sleep next to her last night, I was thankful to know that down the street are two emergency care centers and one hospital. I was thankful for the nausea medicine the doctor gave her that brought her some relief from hours of vomiting, and I was thankful for the medical knowledge I had from school and other cultural sources. While not understanding all the medical science, I do understand what a virus is and how our body fights it. How lonely and frightening it must have been for mothers earlier in our history to know their child was sick but not to have help and medicine close by.

A pioneer child might get injured in numerous ways or become ill with various epidemics like malaria. However, even a simple cold could be serious. A Colorado pioneer mother might have relied on home remedies such as herbs that she grew in her garden. She might also call on a self-proclaimed doctor who stuffed all his equipment into saddlebags. Doctors had little organized medical training, so they resorted to strange treatments like laying the patient bare in the snow and pouring cold water on them until they shook, or they administered large doses of what seem like archaic drugs today. Therefore, calling the doctor was often a last resort and feared by many.

We often take for granted modern medicine, but by comparison it seems quite miraculous at times. Below are some interesting sites for researching this more.

You will want to visit the United States National Library of Medicine as it includes video, images and articles on the history of medicine.

Another interesting site is the Dittrick Medical History Center.

Visit a Large Archive of Articles on Medical History.

From the invention of Bandaides to Artificial Hearts, this sites describes many medical inventions that have changed our lives.

Smithosian information on medical history

Hippocampus article on Progressive reform of medicine.

As we look to a new President in office, this is an interesting site about unknown illnesses of former Presidents.

May your holidays be healthy and all that you hope for!

US Christmas Holiday Traditions

By now, most of our students and you are taking a very much deserved break from school. My guess is you and I need a break from serious posts as well. The picture I used here came from a public domain site.

In this post, I've collected sites about some of the holiday traditions and commercialism that has become part of our history and culture in the US. Whether you like it or not, the holidays have become big business and are successful for a reason. As a child, I remember looking forward to each season with its unique holiday fun, and now as a parent I look forward to them even more. I also worked in retail in high school and college, and I recognize that among all the bustle and purchase of things, the meaning of the holidays is sometimes lost. However, I believe that no matter how out of control we get with shopping, decorating, and activities, we are united by the holidays as a family, community, and nation. As you might expect, some of these sites contain advertisements and silly fun.

For the history of Christmas and Santa in the USA as well as other countries. After all many our American traditions originated in other countries.

More holiday traditions information and fun

Santa Claus History

All things Christmas

Colonial Williamsburg Christmas

More Colonial Christmas Traditions

History of Eggnog

Antebellum Christmas history

Timeline of Christmas Lights

Here’s a Congressional Record about the role of the Christmas tree industry

Here is a reading list on Christmas from the Smithsonian Institute

History of Shopping

More shopping center history

Finally, your kids will love this one, but it doesn't have much to do with history, Northpole.com
Happy Holidays everyone!

Self-Evaluation

The fall semester is drawing to a close and students are taking final exams that evaluate their learning. However, what methods do you have to evaluate your success as an instructor?

Your institution may deliver student surveys. This anonymous and direct communication from students is valuable and launches some of my best ideas, but sometimes these results are very skewed by a couple unhappy students. I also consider performance on assignments and the number of questions I may have had regarding some of them. If students really struggled with something, then I need to go back to the drawing board on that concept. I also include a couple checking-in type discussions for feedback. I ask in the middle of the semester “How’s it going,” so that I can hear from students about what is working or not for them and share some ideas of how they could get the most out of the course materials. Another discussion at the end of the semester asks “What did you think”. Here students are encouraged to provide their thoughts about assignments, discussions, workload, and digital content. I thank each of them, positive or negative, and again get some of my best ideas directly from them.

Getting student feedback is important, but you should also consider using some rubrics for course design to evaluate your courses. CCCOnline gives faculty a self-evaluation list to consider. It asks a series of yes/no questions to help faculty carry on their inner-dialogue any time of the year. Other rubrics are more formal such as the Blackboard Greenhouse Project and Quality Matters. For more, you might also check out the De Anza College page for Excellence in Online Teaching and Learning and Best Practices in Online Teaching at Connexions.

We usually get a little extra time between fall and spring semesters, so no matter what, take a break over the holidays and then take time evaluate your course and online teaching.

Topic of the Month: Pearl Harbor

U.S.S. Shaw exploding during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941(National Archives, Still Picture Branch, 80-G-16871 )

Next weekend on December 7th our nation remembers the devastating attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941. This attack by a fleet of six Japanese aircraft carriers propelled the United States into World War II. My students enjoy a comparison discussion of this event and the US reaction after 9/11 and the reaction of the nation.

Another assignment to teach research skills and to learn about Pearl Harbor is to have students work together in a Wiki to generate a Webliography of sources about Pearl Harbor. Encourage students to break the sources they find into categories such as Naval History, Eye Witness Accounts, Photographs, Japanese Perspective etc…As they post sources they find, require them to also include a summary of the information at the site and any concerns they may have about the integrity of the content.

To Get students started, this day that would “live in infamy” has many wonderful resources available on the web. Here are a few:

For an eye witness account

Many pictures related to the attack

US Naval History Website including eye witness accounts and key basic logistical information

And another US Naval History Website

U-Tube group of pictures about Pearl Harbor

Cool interactive map from National Geographic and numerous other resources

The National Archives Site also has many primary sources such as audio pieces of the Day of Infamy Speech

For some Critical Thinking you might also check out the Library of Congress “Man on the Street” Interviews

For more Critical Thinking consider the Japanese view of this attack. Check out this site to get started

What assignments and activities do you use to teach about this important event?

Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I like to ask students in a bonus discussion to consider the history behind the holiday that we all enjoy and to share their family traditions. Another option for higher ed is for students to pick an historical figure and explain why they are thankful for that person's actions.

For perspective, I asked my 6 and 4 year olds to blurt out things that they think of with Thanksgiving. Here is the down and dirty list as given by my daughters: Turkey, Pumpkin Pie, Holiday, Mashed Potatoes, Family, Butter Rolls, Green Bean Casserole, Stuffing, Gravy, Cranberry Sauce, Laughter, Celebration, Hugs, Warmth, Pecan Pie, Thankful, Mayflower, Pilgrims, (These two I contribute to the Peanuts Mayflower episode), Table, Indians, Eat, Kisses, Love, Colorful Leaves, Decorations, Cloth Napkins, Table Cloth. This list certainly gives you an idea of what our holiday entails at the Kaemmerling house at least from two apparently hungry children. By taking time to consider this holiday, the students connect with each other and with instructors, as we have certain commonalities that unite us and connect us to the past.

Here are a few web sources you might also share with your students:
Mayflower myths
History of Thanksgiving
Plymouth Plantation
Fun thanksgiving things
Mayflower Society History
Pilgrim Lore
Mayflower history
Presidential Proclamations
Hippocampus Information

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

New History Hippocampus Page

The holidays are fast approaching and I wanted to highlight a new Hippocampus History link on the right of this blog page that will make you feel like a kid in a toy store, at least if you love history resources the way I do. At this site you will find some of my articles from this blog, but you will also find highlighted Hippocampus lessons such as today’s Condition of Slaves.

As you know, I’m a big fan of the history lessons that are available at Hippocampus, and whether you are using these in your courses as a text replacement or content supplement, this new web link is sure to help you become more familiar with the history lessons at Hippocampus. In addition, they have included links to other open resources like OER (Open Educational Resources) and the Hewlett Foundation.

On the top right of the page is also a link to customize and create your own hippocampus interface, so as you find lessons that you want students to use, you can create your own page that highlights those lessons and hides those that are not appropriate for your course at this time.

Enjoy playing with the lessons and features at this new Hippocampus page!

To Test or Not to Test with High Stakes Exams

This week I have been grading all-essay midterms in one course and in another reviewing research paper outlines. I am pondering the value of high stakes exams in a freshmen/sophomore level course. Frankly, I have long been running an internal debate about the value of this kind of assessment, which some universities like the University of California require. I am hoping that you all will join me in this debate and share your ideas, alternatives, and resources.

Some pros for high stakes exams:
1. Prevent online cheating by watching tone of essay assessment versus other assignments.
2. Examine higher levels of thinking with essay exams, particularly the important skill of thinking on your feet, recalling information to make an argument, and then synthesizing all that quickly together in a cohesive way.
3. Students in my courses it seems perform better on the essay exams rather than other formats like multiple-choice and matching. Essentially, they can show off what they know.
4. Gives immediate purpose to students for practice assignments.
5. Gives students practice for exams in upper levels of college that are likely to be all essay, but also exposes students to the real world experience of composing under pressure.

Some cons for high stakes exams:
1. Students are very tempted to plagiarize or cheat to do well on the exam that is a significant portion of their grade.
2. Online courses really are open-book unless students go to a test center, so the exam may not really demonstrate more knowledge than other formative assignments.
3. All-essay exams often test writing ability more than a student’s knowledge of history, which is often reflected with some students not “writing” much and scoring poorly.
4. Online exams can be even more intimidating than face to face exams due to technology concerns, and there is no one to ask a question of once you start.
5. There are many alternatives to one or two big assessments per semester that may evaluate student knowledge of content just as effectively if not better.

With the recent push for exit high school exams and other standardized tests in our nation, many states are reporting negatively about their impact. If you have exams, here is an article with ideas for writing good exams and another about complaints by students about how exams sometimes don't relate to what they study and do in practice.

I want to hear from you! Do you use exams? Are they an effective evaluation of your learning objectives? What alternatives do you use instead of exams?

Election History

I definitely prefer studying social history over political or economic history, but truly the three are so related you cannot focus on one without considering the others. This semester I am offering a bonus discussion about the role of elections and their sometimes unpredictable or historical outcomes and their effect on our lives.

At Hippocampus.org, there are many wonderful pages regarding historical elections. At the hippocampus, use the search box and type the word election and you will get ten pages of results. Here are some examples you might point out to students.

1. Election of 1892 when the Omaha Platform called for secret ballots.

2. Election of 1824 when Jackson beat Adams in the popular vote but did not win the electoral vote.

3. Election of 1948 when Truman had a surprise win over Dewey.

4. Election of 1932 when Roosevelt defeated Hoover to try to bring the nation out of the Great Depression and was the encumbent for several upcoming elections.

5. Election of 1864 when the nation was divided by Civil War.

6. Election of 1968 when Nixon was elected during theVietnam war.

7. Election of 2000 when George W. Bush was elected.

In addition to using the search feature at the Hippocampus site, you might also consider referring to the American Government course offered at the site. One particularly interesting article is on voting demographics.

Another great resource for you and your students is the History Channel web site that includes campaign speeches, video, ads, and their own list of the top five elections. Check out this .gov site as well for some great election information that includes voting statistics, election history, and current events with the 2008 election. All this should help students see the significance of their vote and the impact of citizens' decisions on history today and in our future.

Happy Voting Day!

Topic of the Month: Jamestown

I grew up near Richmond, Virginia, and my grandfather loved to take day trips with the family to various local historic locations like Jamestown, the site of the first permanent English colony. Years ago the museum was free, so when I discovered they now charge admission, I was disappointed. However since I have traveled there with my children, I would happily pay that fee. What they created is a hands-on living-history experience for all ages .

At our last visit, the special exhibit was the Jamestown Settlement Artifact Odyssey, which includes images of nature, artifacts, and people John White painted as he visited the Algonquian Indians in North Carolina in 1580. I found these images fascinating, but my 6 and 3 year olds were quite bored. A permanent exhibit in the Galleries demonstrates the English, African, and Powhatan cultures meeting with artifacts, life-size dioramas, and full-scale structures.

My children, however, could not wait to get outside to the hands-on engaging history experience that awaited them. While guided tours are available, my children explored and learned on their own in the Powhatan Indian Village that included houses for sleeping and storage. Children can touch the beds, walls, and items in the houses. They can also grind corn, tan hides, and visit with the museum volunteers in costume. From there, they ran down to the riverfront where they climbed aboard replicas of the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery where they tried the sailor’s bunks and were taught to raise the anchor and steer the craft with a tiller. Then we moved on to recreation of the 1610-1614 James Fort . They explored the homes, church, and storehouse. A cannon is shot off every so often, so be prepared to hear that noise as well as learn how colonists used matchlock muskets. Emily found the colonial armor very heavy and couldn't imagine walking around in it often.

At Jamestown historical facts collides with cultural legends about Pocahontas, John Rolfe, and John Smith. While I can not capture the hands-on experience that I would like all my students and their families to have, I do offer my students the option of traveling to and reporting on a museum experience in replace of a homework assignment.